The present invention relates to a transport apparatus and an exposure apparatus.
In an exposure apparatus which is used in a photolithography process, there is proposed an EUV exposure apparatus which uses extreme ultra-violet (EUV) light as exposing light, such as that disclosed in, for example, JP-A-2005-032510.
In the past, in this kind of exposure apparatus, a photosensitive substrate such as a wafer has been transported into a vacuum chamber, and as the technology for shortening transport time, there is disclosed technology in which a plurality of (in JP-A-2004-179567, three-consecutive) load lock chambers which are divided by partition walls with slits formed therein and have a gradual increase in a degree of vacuum are provided and the photosensitive substrate passes in sequence the plurality of load lock chambers through the slits of the partition walls, as disclosed in, for example, JP-A-2004-179567.